Wal-Mart Asks Employees to Donate Food to Other, Poorer Employees

Displaying a bizarre self-awareness about its own business practices, a Wal-Mart in Cleveland, Ohio is asking its employees to donate food to other, less-fortunate employees–who apparently can’t afford it on their meager Wal-Mart wages. Some people were irked by the mega-chain retailer’s humanitarianism. “That Wal-Mart would have the audacity to ask low-wage workers to donate food to other low-wage workers — to me, it is a moral outrage,” one local, Norma Mills told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

An employee who didn’t wish to be identified for fear of being fired agreed with Mills, calling the food drive “demoralizing” and “kind of depressing.”

Company spokesman Kory Lundberg says the donation bins are about employees looking out for each other. “This is part of the company’s culture to rally around associates and take care of them when they face extreme hardships,” he told the Plain Dealer.

As Business Insider points out, Wal-Mart made $15.7 billion in profit in 2012.